Bike helmets

[marmeemarch1]

I have always insisted my two DDs 6 and 9 wear bike helmets. They have recently started meeting our oldest DDs friends and playing around the block. It's a very quiet area but does have some through traffic.

They like to go out on their bikes. I have said they have to wear helmets but their dad and our childminder frequently let them out without helmets.

They say they hurt their heads, make them sweaty and they are embarrassed to wear them as not all of their friends wear them. Our current compromise is if they don't want to go out with helmets they can't take their bikes, but can still play out with their friends.

I have worked with people with brain injury so am worried that my work experiences are clouding my judgement.

Wise mumsnetters what do you think

Shotsfired - ha you're right, there are alot of wedged up judgey pants on here.
Sarcomere - do you also go up to your smoking students and remind them they might die of cancer, your fat students that they might get diabetes, your drinking students- they might get cirrhosis, no? It's just the non helmet wearing cyclists you feel worried about!

Why do some people get so worked up about other people choosing to use safety equipment, and wanting their children to as well?

It's a bit like the people who speed because 'it's not speed that kills, it's dangerous driving'.

@BoysofMelody A cyclist travelling one mile is 15 times more likely to suffer a fatality than a motorist traveling the same distance (dft 2014)

Almost always due to something far heavier and more solid hitting them. In which case a helmet is fuck all use anyway.

(44 cyclists killed by car drivers in 2015 alone, out of almost 15,000 car:bike incidents)

@picklemepopcorn Why do some people get so worked up about other people choosing to use safety equipment, and wanting their children to as well?

Probably because those people are fed up with being preached at for holding a different but equally valid and thought-out opinion on the topic.

And when perfectly relevant and reasonable questions are glossed over (e.g. why don't pedestrians or car users wear helmets when the stats show they are far more dangerous activities).

Why do some people get so worked up about other people choosing to use safety equipment, and wanting their children to as well?

Because it creates a climate where cycling is seen as dangerous, when it is not.

@LuckLuckLUCK said it much more concisely than me

The point is, it is not a binary choice between:

1. Wear helmet, live long and happy life and ride everywhere free from harm and all danger as you are now OFFICIALLY SAFE!
2. Don't wear helmet, you and your children will suffer horrendous injury or death almost immediately because you are a bad person and IN DANGER!

Blimey,to the OP that said people will think that cycling is dangerous, I have always thought that cycling on roads with cars is a dangerous activity. No protection whatsoever.

Is cycling on a road with cars not dangerous then? (With or without helmet)

I'm more of a 'wear a helmet on your bike because it keeps your head a bit safer' person, myself.

I don't need one in the car because I've had far fewer accidents (by time or miles) in the car, and have always been adequately protected by the air bags/seatbelt/car seat/frame built into the vehicle.

The bike doesn't really have many protective qualities, does it? I also made my children wear proper shoes on bikes, having seen horrible toe injuries from cycling in flip flops and open toed sandals.

As you say, each to their own. We tend to learn from our own experiences.

Sorry, the poster that said people may think cycling is dangerous when it isn't (not the OP)

No helmet no bike in our house too. I was hit by a car on my bike and my helmet got broken and my head didn't. I can still hear the noise it made thudding on the road as I flew off the car bonnet and I immediately thought 'thank fuck I've got that on'. (That was my second thought after ' I'm on a car windscreen. It is just like it is in the films.' )

@callmeadoctor Sorry, the poster that said people may think cycling is dangerous when it isn't (not the OP)

In and of itself, no cycling is not a danger sport. But this sort of thing does make it dangerous:

• from West Midlands Police, who ran an excellent and effective Road Safety campaign based on the actual incident stats in their area : tinyurl.com/y9st2vcw

(and before anyone says so, yes there are also absolutely dickhead cyclists who ride dangerously too, I hate them just as much as the next person.)

@luckluckLuck

"I think people just think 'no helmet no ride' sounds clever."

Absolutely, as opposed to people saying 'no need to wear a helmet' sounding stupid. I'm glad we agree.

Your head your rulz hun

Yes I do boysofmelody although usually offroad, so the incidents you have mentioned don't really occur to me. But yes obsv they could happen. My post was more about making a judgement at the time, and do what you think is right at the time.

I'm really sorry meara

ohwhat I don't know whether you find too, but my dc have rarely hit their heads when falling over from walking/running, but they do most times when on their bikes. I wonder wether it is because you have your hands actively free during walking, whereas it takes just those few seconds longer to protect your fall on a bike/scooter

Exactly my head my rules. Like I don't tell smokers off for smoking although I think they're nuts.

So if more people spend more time travelling by car than they do by bike then We are more likely to obtain a head injury in a car than on a bike.

So what is being done to reduce head injuries in cars ?

So if more people spend more time travelling by car than they do by bike then We are more likely to obtain a head injury in a car than on a bike.

At a population level yes, at an individual level, no.

So what is being done to reduce head injuries in cars ?

Christ you're like a dog with a bone, the same thing I've told you at least three times over. I half admire you persistence, but have you ever heard of the Mark Twain quotation, "it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool then speak out and remove all doubt"?

You never do actually answer the question though do you - you actually highlight a statement then talk about something else entirely different as you just don't have an answer

ivy many people have explained, including myself that the reason we are happy to not wear a helmet in a car is because there is already sufficient protection within the car, therefore a helmet is not needed. At speed a helmet is not going to do much anyway, say in a head on collision on the motorway. People have died of head injuries whilst wearing a helmet on a bicycle and motorbike, the same would be true in a car.
But most people who ride bikes aren't going fast enough to negate a helmet useless, so it makes sense to wear one as their is no other protection available on a bike.

Today 13:15 BoysofMelody

And yet you are still more likely to get a head injury in a car!

Because far more people travel far more miles by car in the UK than do by bike. If 1000 people work in an iron foundry and 500 suffer an industrial accident, but 100,000 work in an office and 1000 people have an industrial accident, would you conclude that working in an office you are more or less likely to have an industrial accident.

I'm told here that head injury in a car is more likely than on a bike -yes because you're more likely to be in a car than on bike

But you both keep saying that the car has protection against head injury

Tell me why am I more likely to get a head injury in a car?

At great speed a helmet will be useless on a motorway crash - so explain slowly to me why a rally driver wears a helmet

If any of the stats relating to head injuries in cars are from the usa and not reasonably recent then they probably include a lot not even wearing seatbelts. Even now, I think enforcement is quite lax and penalties low in most states?

My DD will soon be cycling on roads so DH spent quite a bit if time researching helmets... so, not only will she be wearing one, but its also the sort designed to reduce torsional injury, and perhaps its greatest contribution to her safety is its bright yellow to make it that bit less likely she'll be hit by anything else.

ivy do you and your family
personally wear a helmet in a car?